Report: Yahoo may confirm massive data breach

SAN FRANCISCO — Internet portal and search firm Yahoo may confirm this week a massive data breach that exposed information about tens of millions of its users, according to the technology news website Recode.

The confirmation would follow a Yahoo investigation into claims that surfaced in early August that a hacker using the name “Peace” was trying to sell the usernames, passwords and dates of birth of Yahoo account users on the dark web — a black market of thousands of secret websites.

A Yahoo representative was not immediately available to comment on the report.

The breach may affect up to 200 million user accounts, Recode reported.

Word of the breach is not surprising given the hacker chatter surrounding the company, said Alex Heid, chief research officer at SecurityScorecard, real-time cybersecurity rating and risk monitoring platform.. There have been numerous underground conversations surrounding the tech giant since late June, he said.

The expected confirmation also comes as Yahoo looks to complete its $4.8. billion sale of its core Internet business to media giant Verizon Communications… SEE MORE

Al-Rasub is a news aggregate website that accumulates major news sources around the globe. All content is hand-picked in order to pull the best stories produced by a wide variety of other news organizations.